Favorite films

Pinned reviews

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  Bound 1996

  ★★★★ Watched 18 Sep 2022 9

  It makes me sad that Christopher Meloni’s character’s surname is “Marzzone”. It’s supposed to be an Italian name, but “rzz” simply isn’t a valid sequence of letters, in Italian. You can have Marzone, or Mazzone, but never Marzzone. It’s true, sometimes names break rules—I went to school with someone whose surname is Fazzioli, even though “zzio” is also, in theory, not a valid sequence of letters in Italian (“my name is an exception,” this classmate told me, once, when I…

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  Splash 1984

  Watched 22 Nov 2020

  After watching this film in a state of slight stress, I went to sleep, and dreamt that Tom Hanks was one of a number of “talking hobo actors” who started their acting careers after being found washed up on beaches with no memories of who they were (presumably starting from the beginning of the Talkie era onwards). The other “talking hobo actors” were jealous of Tom Hanks’s success—it would have been better if they had all been similarly successful, rather than one of them being way more successful than all the others.

Recent reviews

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  Black Bag 2025

  Watched 17 Mar 2025

  I was surprised by the feelings of fondness I felt at the sight of the film’s relatively soulless London locations—Heathrow, corporate offices, interstitial spaces between glass buildings, a Pret A Manger, a small sushi restaurant catering to men in suits. Probably a combination of the fact that they made me nostalgic for a time, pre-parenthood, when I would travel to the capital a little more often (for improv workshops and shows, museum exhibitions, and to see friends), but they also…

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  The Goodbye Kiss 2006

  Watched 14 Mar 2025

  Soavi really likes Jethro Tull, huh? At least, he seems to really like the song "Aqualung": one of the softer sequences plays before Giorgio's first sexual encounter with Flora, and one of the rockier sequences plays when he drives away from Milan to start a new life in Ravenna. I like that song too, but there's something incongruous about hearing the lyrics "leg hurting bad, as he bends to pick a dog-end" while Giorgio attempts to seduce Flora, and even…

Popular reviews

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  Cow 2021

  ★★★★ Watched 19 Jan 2022 4

  I'm glad the cow got to spend a few nights each year sleeping under the soft glow of starlight.

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  Legend 1985

  Watched 28 Feb 2021 14

  I was blown away by the sheer look of this film. But, thinking about it now, I’m not so sure about its take on monobrows. Tom Cruise sports what looks like his natural monobrow in this, and because his character is good, natural, and authentic, this suggests that we are meant to infer that monobrows are good, natural, and authentic as well. But then, when the forces of darkness give Princess Lili an “evil” makeover in an attempt to corrupt…